Pedrosa ruled out after surgery

For the second year running injuries have hit Pedrosa's pre-season

Dani Pedrosa's MotoGP world title hopes have suffered a blow before the season has begun after he was ruled out of pre-season testing for up to a month.

The Spanish Repsol Honda rider crashed in testing in Qatar and has undergone two operations on his left knee and arm, involving a skin graft.

The soonest he will be able to bend his knee properly will be in a month.

That would mean the former world championship runner-up misses the final pre-season test at Jerez on 28 March.

606: DEBATE Doesn't look like a good start to the year for him though and is sadly typical - a great talent prone to bad crashes. Gary M

The Spaniard had knee surgery at the end of last year and as a result has only managed three complete days of testing so far this year.

This will be the second year running that Pedrosa's pre-season has been upset by injury.

Last year he needed a titanium plate inserted into his hand after crashing in Malaysia.

His absence from testing meant the task of developing the Honda RC212V fell to then-teammate Nicky Hayden; this year, it will be new partner Andrea Dovizioso's job to get the bike ready for the new season.

• Nail fungus treatment
• payday loans in arizona